Archery is considered a game of consistency, however I rather see it as a game of mistakes. the one who makes the least mistakes stands a great chance of winning. This becomes more so the better you get where the difference between glory and also-ran can be millimetres away. 
Like many I sometimes find that I can shoot good shots that just don't land near where I was aiming. There must be a mistake there to eliminate. 

In the first two articles in this series I have covered the prohibited list 2008 and tried to give an overview of its contents. In this article I will cover therapeutic use exemptions, what they are and how to get one if you need it. As before the major source of information regarding regulations and requirements is the world anti-doping agency website which can be found at www.wada-ama.org.

In the first of these articles, I discussed the section of the prohibited list which deals with substances prohibited both in and out of competition. In this second part, I will deal with the remainder of the prohibited list, comprising Prohibited Methods, substances prohibited in competition only and - of some importance to us in the sport of Archery - the section which details substances prohibited in particular sports.

As of the time of writing, the most recent Prohibited List is the version released in January 2008. The list is updated regularly and it would be my recommendation that you always refer to the version found on the WADA website (http://www.wada-ama.org/) in preference to any other versions or interpretations (even those that might be issued by national governing bodies). The list is relatively self-explanatory and deals with substances (drugs) and some techniques which may be employed to give an unfair advantage.

The issues surrounding doping in all sports are complex and are (in my experience) often misunderstood by those participating at a grass-roots level. Archery is no exception. One might imaging that archers would not benefit from doping, as it is not a particular benefit in our sport to have a large muscle mass or extreme stamina. There are, however, a number of prohibited agents that have been used to improve performance in archery and FITA is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code.